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Ec-Tkon Multiformers
=Ec-Tkon Multiformers= The Ec-Tkon Multiformers are a highly advanced Teraverse-scale civilization that have designated themselves as a "Great Ancestor" to, most notably among their creations, countless strains of insidious, technology-absorbing species collectively called the Multiform Vessels. While the entities and powers surrounding them devoted themselves to direct warfare - becoming "Great Aggressors" - or to perpetual study and observation of the Omniverse - becoming "Great Archivists" - the Ec-Tkon spread out through many -verses and dimensions, dispatching their creations far and wide to prevent a single strike from eliminating all of their progeny at once. Biology Over many aeons, the Ec-Tkon evolved and augmented themselves drastically from their original form, developing a physiology not at all suited towards normal organic behavior. A single sensory and processing complex - a "head" of sorts, though it more closely resembles a glowing, partially-mechanical eye - taking the shape of a three-centimeter-wide sphere forms an Ec-Tkon's central body, and from it extend two thin pairs of fifteen-centimeter-long tendrils intended for fine manipulation of physical objects. The Ec-Tkon float through the air thanks to tiny antigravity devices, though they spend much of their time immersed in a dense computronium-like "simulation gel", which eliminates the need for motion. The Ec-Tkon have surpassed almost all physical needs, requiring only basic nanite-performed maintenance from time to time, an activity which is barely perceptible to them and usually performed while in simulation gel. They opted not to ascend to an energy-based or quantum form, deciding that physical bodies, while inefficient, reminded them of their intended purpose - to create new species, also physical in nature, and thus to act as ancestors. History The Ec-Tkon evolved as bipedal, vaguely insect-like creatures on a tropical world in a backwater region of their local multiverse. After internal conflict throughout their development, all the way to their intergalactic era, the creation of superintelligent AI let them optimize to greater and greater extents, and they swiftly rallied behind the banner of supremacy through computational power. Cyborgizing and evolving themselves, the Ec-Tkon annihilated or forcibly displaced any alien civilization in their path, depending on their whims at the time. The discovery of interuniversal travel and so-called "physics bridges" let them exploit loopholes in multiversal incompatibilities, and allowed for a revolution in technological capacity. However, this was not enough for them to overcome the multiversal barrier and expand out into the megaverse beyond; a coalition of Great Archivist species had long ago blockaded the entire -verse for fear of the Ec-Tkon escaping. Trapped, the Ec-Tkon began to engineer several new species, the first-generation Multiform Vessels, to serve them and assist them in breaking free. It took several billion years, but the Multiform Vessels gradually spread and multiplied, allowing them and their creators to work together to overwhelm the Great Archivists. Rising through the archverse chain further was very slow, and after uncountable aeons the Ec-Tkon slowed and eventually stopped their main outwards expansion, devoting more resources instead to engineering new Multiform Vessels and seeding the omniverse with them, in the hopes that their spawn would discover new resources, artifacts, and entities that may eventually prove useful. Multiform Vessels At their core, Multiform Vessels are all derived from the same fundamental composition. The first of any new Multiform Vessel species take molecule-sized seed-like forms, optimized for easy packing and transit across the cosmos. Upon arrival, they begin assimilating information about the local biochemistry in play (if any exists) and adapting their descendants to loosely match. This adaptation can take many forms. Multiform Vessels can grow up alongside planetary civilizations, serving as mentors and allies, or they can remain hidden, silently copying the technology and appearance of the dominant species on the planets but maintaining a very slightly artificial or otherwise alien physiology. Some strains of Multiform Vessel have been seen to abandon shape altogether, forming into clouds of ideas modeled after the brains of their environment's local sapient life. All species of Multiform Vessel share a few common traits; they possess some degree of reality-warping, especially when it comes to mass- and energy-altering. Multiform Vessels can store and retrieve objects larger than their bodies, their armor and shielding often has a fractal space-folding effect, and many of them seem to have extradimensional or FTL capabilities in regards to communication, perception, and countless other aspects. While all of them are ostensibly given the same memetic protocols, the many species of Multiform Vessels are considered unpredictable and unreliable by those who know of their true nature. They may fight amongst themselves, pursue contradictory or impossible objectives, or perform collective actions that make no sense to observers. The Ec-Tkon approve of this behavior as long as it does not affect them personally; the more the Multiform Vessels disguise their true nature by acting more like regular civilizations, the better their odds in the extreme-long-term.